McConaughey: I put morals on hold

Matthew McConaughey is careful never to “bring his morals” to work.

The 44-year-old actor won this year’s best actor Oscar thanks to his portrayal of AIDS sufferer Ron Woodroof in Dallas Buyers Club. His speech surprised many as he thanked God and paid tribute to his late father, who he said was doubtless in heaven.

Despite being deeply spiritual, Matthew is careful not to let that have an impact on his work.

“I’m very clear with myself and my own belief in God, and I don’t bring my morals to my day job because they might get in my way,” he told deadline.com.

“My own beliefs don’t factor into it, I just need to be able to hang my hat on the humanity of the character.”

In TV show True Detective, Matthew portrays Rust Cohle, a character very different to him. Rust is cynical and serious and doesn’t seem to see much joy in life, but Matthew could still find common ground with him.

“I’m a pragmatist, but nowhere near as much a cynic as Rustin Cohle, but I love philosophy. I studied it in school, and I love the sciences and the point of view that someone like Rust Cohle has. I’m glad I am now not as hard on myself as Rust is, but I really loved that poetry,” he gushed.

After Matthew won the Oscar, his Dazed and Confused director Rick Linklater called it inevitable. The star isn’t so sure about that, but is proud he stuck to his guns when it came to moving away from rom-coms.

“Only in hindsight might it be easy to say something is inevitable. Did I get frustrated? I got to feeling like, for a few years, I was doing something that I liked to do with romantic and action comedies. But believe me, I noticed there were other things that were not coming in,” he said.